This idea has gradually evoloved, but it all started a week earlier when I was told to defend one of my post Coke Strikes back by my friend. According to him no doubt the Ad was great but taking literal meaning of word Sar Uthake Piyo was kind of foolish , the tag line lost its authenticity this way. Somehow I did manage to defend saying but idea was really innovative but deep down I knew he was right to some extent.

I came across this really great post at my favourite blog Creating Passionate Users. The notion to use Ads & Money for charity has really moved me. I know its not new ( had seen some soap ad on TV stating will donate some part of money to charity , or the last Saffola ad where company states a part of it will be used in helping homeless child).

Then lo behold idea strucked me, if coke can just donate some part of revenue ( I dont know figures or their profit or anything , idea is just concern to care ) wouldn’t it make their end customers proud ?. Wouldn’t person drinking coke feel (though not immense i might add ) he is proud that he chose coke and not other drink. It will be truly kinda Sar Uthake Piyo ad. Coke are you listening? What you think?

Also if companies can just show end users how they are directly helping charity ( I know lot of big companies do , and tend to keep it like secret ) wouldn’t it help in building their brand image?. Starting this traditon of Marketing Charity as I prefer to call would do lot of good for society and company according to me.

Companies really need to note the idea of charity is there in almost all individual ( was chatting with muslim friend like few mins ago and he is like soon it will be Ramazan Bayram and he will keep fast for 3 days showing concern for poor families, or take case of people tend to donate most on occasions of Diwali , Eid ). If they can just find a way to add this Charity tag with their brand image it will really help them, according to me.

This is just my heart felt idea. I know a part of it may seem unreasonable but even if it is implemented to say 20% extent , it would do great for society.

With Diwali coming really near I had to go shopping for gifts & sweets. But first thing that my Mom says “Milk items strict no , get chocolate if you want or rasgullas but no Mawa items”. .

Its same scenario in every house today. Reason Mawa ( Milk based product )some 4-5 years back had brought about some serious disease ( milk was spoilt and bad ) and result had caused death of some person. Thus then a general opinion had been formed among people that its better to give Cadbury as gift item than traditional sweets, pedas.

Cadbury people were smart and seized opportunity. They came up with special party packs, gifts packs and thus new tradition was born or as some prefer to say existing tradition was changed. Now 1-2 years back entry of Kurkure chips. They came up with smart ads with tagline something like “Just give something mirch masala instead of sweet” this diwali and lo behold new tradition started yet again.

Does that mean anyone can try to change traditional market to suit his product ? . Answer is ofcourse no. While trying to build up additional market for your product through this Changing Tradition Technique you ought to keep following things in mind.

1. Timing should be perfect: Be aware of all instances that happen around you and think of way how it can help your product sell.
2. Think out of the box: To exist in today’s market first feedback of your idea should be somewhat like absurd , foolish, different. Only totally new ideas can perhaps change tradition and sell your product.
3. Emphasis to Word of mouth campaign: Well to break traditional barriers need somewhat strong backing and I personally feel Word of mouth will have greater impact on this kind of marketing strategy than traditional Print, TV ads.

To summarize it takes guts to change traditional market, but results are rewarding.

It was a usual situation as Jim Coudal put forth in his article. I was sitting in the other chair while my friend was trying to sell his product. ( In this case garment, he is trying to start his business in this field and was looking for a loan ). So the banker shoots “what’s your brand name ?”. And as discussed earlier (I had a long discussion with my friend before about this topic ) he replied “Lemon”.

So the next question as expected “Why this name ?” and I smiled as if I knew that my friend had almost won the battle with just one word ( though lot of research went behind it). I took time to gaze at my friend only to see him nodding his head to me as if to say thank you and then he started his conversation with banker.

Outcome he did get a loan and now I just hope he does good for himself and others around him.

Now for the main part of story …… as to why he won battle with just one word. I don’t know if you have realized but some of successful brands today are fruits. Take for eg Apple, Orange , Mango

Apple now more famous for its iPod . Orange the nation’s leading cellular service provider. Mango a famous clothing brand. Yes fruits have become brands and not just ordinary brands but brands on whom people look upto.

So while going through articles on some site on how to decide your brand it just strucked me that why not continue with trends and use fruits as a launching pad for branding. So next I sat down and made a list of fruits well known by most of people and still not in use by companies. Here is a list that I came up with.

1. Lemon- My favourite , beautiful name , really cool logo can be made for this and just gives a feeling of freshness.
2. Grapes - The other well known fruits can be extensively used for some research group company .
3. Chickoo - I know it sounds stupid to some choosing this as a brand. But come on this is the most common name everyone has heard , atleast in India and if some company goes about using this brand, there will be quite long talks about it . This kind of talks actually really helps in building a brand for company.
4. Almond - I know it doesnt come in fruits category but still its a cool name and could be used by any company . Its a rich word.

So any takers for fruits??. It might happen in future when a kid says i need Orange , Apple & Mango what he really means is he needs orange connection , apple ipod and mango styleware. So much for branding. Brand of Fruits

Well it was as expected, these boys always come up with awesome ads to counter - attack. So everyone in India was dancing to tunes of Sapera or snake charmer ( Sharukh khan in Oyee Babli Pepsi ad ) . Coke knew time to strike back had come.

So what was up in their sleeve you may ask. Remarkably it was awesome ad ” Sar Uthake Piyo” starring Amir Khan. Its really cool ad . Kuddos to their Ad maker for coming up with such a great idea.

What’s next ? Retaliation from Pepsi -maybe in form of Man seeing up and crow shitting on him and some tag line, you may never know

Thanks to recent events ( one with IIPM where a guy swears on founder of IIPM ) blogs are finding a notice , recognition in India. Today I finally succumbed to Bloglines to manage my feeds which are increasing daily.

While importing my subscriptions I thought I would mention some of the blogs I really like and think all should subscribe to. So here is list of my 5ives Best Blog ( wow that site has really grabbed my attention lately) .

1. Solution Watch
2. Creating Passionate Users
3. Slacker Manager
4. Strange Brand
5. Unmatched Style

Ya ya next thing you will say is all blog are part of 9rules . You guessed it right , I love that site too